Just a simple song but God I love it Embedded in me, so bittersweet I’m addicted, I’m a melancholic Sing it again, I’ll be your Poll forever: THE BOO RADLEYS - ILM artist poll #60 or new numbering #65

It was my number six. It's always been my favourite C'mon Kids song.

I find it strange and quite surprising that no song has got more than 12 votes (out of 21) even at this stage! How Wake Up Boo! for example only got 5 votes is beyond me. We all really seem to like different kind of songs.

I mean, I would have thought that the songs in Top 10 would have been on pretty much everyone's list.

Youtube comment under NBP:

It's a shame that the Boo Radleys are remembered chiefly for the breakfast show staple "Wake Up Boo!". "C'mon Kids" is a forgotten masterpiece, a proper "journey" of an album whose greatness creeps up on you. The glorious "I believe in love" crescendo of "Four Saints" perfectly sets up this 3 minutes of nostalgic pop genius.

arrgh! i didn't realise you'd be counting down over the weekend!

just been catching up. very surprised at the amount of Kingsize and Learning To Walk songs, especially in proportion to GS and Wake Up. Nothing wrong with these (Learning to Walk has gone up in my estimation in recent years, not so much Kingsize which is their Think Tank - a good handful of good songs and a good few clunkers too). Still holding out for my number 1.

I am refreshing this page quite a lot right now.

Top 5

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-otXFoYWzph4/VT1Ev316RyI/AAAAAAAAAsE/sq0BaV8Sg3c/w400-h350-no/From%2BThe%2BBench%2BAt%2BBelvidere%2Btwo%2Bm.jpg

5. From The Bench At Belvedere
From: Stand Alone Single (not on an album)
Released: Sept 22, 1995
374 Points, 11 Votes, 1 Number One

YouTube
Can't find the video :-(

Hooray! This was my number one. One of the most beautiful songs ever.

OTM!

love, love, love this song, sounds like summer. just checked my ballot to see where i placed it and come to find out i actually didn't vote for it? wow, very shocked that this one dropped off.

this is a great song. it deserved to be as big a hit as WUB. My first ever gig by a 'proper' band was the Boos touring this EP at Cambridge Corn Exchange on my 15th(?) birthday.

Always thought it was strange how quickly it came out after It's Lulu.

listening back to the boos in recent weeks, i can't help but feel I can still listen to everything from Wake Up and before while the C'Mon Kids through Kingsize era has aged rather poorly for some reason. Even though C'Mon Kids was supposed to be a return to the experimentalism of Giant Steps, there's something a little plastic and polished about the production. It suffers from coming straight after the Oasis era when suddenly even bands who had preceded them - Ride (in the guise of Hurricane #1); The Stone Roses (The Seahorses) had to have a particular guitar sound. Even the cover of Kingsize SCREAMS 'Hey it's 1998 - we've got a software package and we're going to use it!'

It's Lulu is such a wretched song. They really should've taken it off the album, let alone released it as a single. Reaching Out From Here or Twinside would have made much better choices.

not so much Kingsize which is their Think Tank

i think i'd think a lot more highly of kingsize if they'd left off free huey. it ruins the flow and there are already just a few too many songs on there.

that is funny you should say that about "It's Lulu." both "Free Huey" and "It's Lulu" got no votes. i think "It's Lulu" is okay but i have also heard Martin Carr doesn't like it either.

Find The Answer Within and It's Lulu are my two least favourite singles on Wake Up.

i quite like 'Find the Answer Within'. Not sure it was the best choice of follow-up to WUB though. I like the backwards singing on that one - played forward they say 'If you like a lot of fighting with your football, join our club' and 'Can you see the little doggies do it doggy style?'

From The Bench at Belvidere is pretty great, but to me it doesn't sound like same kind of a potential hit as Wake Up Boo!
It's Lulu seems to have bombed and isn't gonna appear in this poll, but I don't get all the hate for the song. It's the same kind of a throwaway song as Lazy Day for me - just a fun little track in between the more interesting stuff. I guess it's the most WUB-like song on the album, which is why someone at Creation decided that it'd be a good single. Martin Carr himself apparently doesn't rate the track that high either. Reaching Out From Here might have been a decent choice for the third single, but I disagree about Twinside.

Obviously I meant those are two least favourite songs not just singles.

'Old Newsstand' should have been a single. Why wasn't it a single?

I think Twinside would have been a great single. It's such a brilliant and catchy song that shows a different side to the album. I think this is how the singles should have gone.

Twinside
Wake Up Boo!
Reaching Out From Here
Stuck on Amber

whenever i played Kingsize i do skip "Free Huey" and sort of look at that album without that song. when i was playing Kingsize this time around for this poll i did listen and found that it doesn't bother me anymore.

I remember someone once describing that song as "crap jazz". I love that song, but I could think of a few better singles from Kingsize.

re: Lulu - it's just so cheesy and plays into the hands of the 'Boos just write happy-clappy radio-pop' crew. The lyrics and subject matter are just bad bad bad - Kevin & Perry in song format with loads of throwaway 'here she comes now, here she comes now, it's Lulu' stuff. just brash, clunky and unintentionally condescending.

I am listening to Kingsize now with Free Huey taken out and it's a lot easier on the ears. I'm actually enjoying 'Monuments for a Dead Century', which I always felt was a bit forced. Without Free Huey on the album the songs flow together much better, almost in a similar way to GS.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-g9CryKTJqKg/VT1LiRieYxI/AAAAAAAAAs0/ZyyIa0dw3pg/w400-h419-no/Wish%2BI%2BWas%2BSkinny%2Bm.jpg

4. Wish I Was Skinny
From: Giant Steps and Stand Alone Single
Released: Sept 30, 1993
387 Points, 13 Votes

Music video by The Boo Radleys performing Wish I Was Skinny

didn't make my list but a fun song. catchy Boos.

Always felt Wish I Was Skinny was a good song but never liked how it came in on GS (same as Barney & Me). This musically and lyrically straight-forwarded song slam in the middle of a spaced-out, psychedelic trip. Bit conflicted about it coming in quite so high to be honest and starting to worry my number 1 won't make it.

Twinside as the first single? Had that actually happened, we might not be here now talking about this poll! I just can't imagine it being such a huge radio friendly hit as Wake Up Boo! was. WUB is just insanely catchy - twenty years later people still remember that refrain and the trumpets. Twinside is obviously a very cool track, but it hasn't got any catchy "hooks" like that.

I'm pleasantly surprised by New Brighton Promenade's high placing. It's tucked away in the last third of C'Mon Kids and rarely gets mentioned as a stand out, but it's really sweet and great and goes to prove the Boos' greatest moments were never necessarily their most prominent.

xpost Oh yeah, I never listen to Free Huey whenever I play that album.

Take WUB and It's Lulu out the equation and the Wake Up album is an incredibly bleak record; on a par with The Bends for quiet, contemplative miserabilism mixed witht he odd flourish of sixties psychedelia. Makes for slim pickings in following up WUB, admittedly, but Twinside was indie-club friendly and rocked quite a lot, so I'd have had that over It's Lulu anytime.

I think of Twinside being the lead single like Lenny being the lead single from I Should Coco. Instead of putting Alright out straight away they went with a harder sounding song probably knowing Alright would be a massive hit later on that kept the album selling for the rest of the year.

Wow, Kingsize is really effing good without that horrible song on it. Just constantly doing different things and yet a steady vibe flowing through it. It's a fine album.

bloody hell, i am worried about the next two songs. evidently everyone knows what #1'll be

if it's Barney & Me, I'll feel very deflated.

Wish I Was Skinny was my #10! It's indeed as musically and lyrically straight-forward as possible (like a few other Boos pop gems), but not everything has to be so complicated. Carr had (and still has) the tendency to go all weird at some point in most of his songs, which is one thing that made The Boos such a great band, but every now and then he also managed to keep things simple which was also cool. I always thought that The Boos found the perfect balance between that weirdness and the simplicity.

Wow, Kingsize is really effing good without that horrible song on it. Just constantly doing different things and yet a steady vibe flowing through it. It's a fine album.

this makes me very happy. wonder if you would ever see the day. :-)

Feel like it's pretty obvious what the top three will be now. I really want to know which album your number one is from.

two and one will be revealed together, as there probably won't be much mystery.

amazing how much one song can put you off the album. Free Huey came out the day I got my A-level results and I went out and bought both CD and vinyl versions. I Can only remember being disappointed and I don't think it put me in good stead for the album. It's not that I didn't like Kingsize, but it was all the more hard to love with this weak shouty already-dated dance tune on it.

i honestly don't know what 3 and 2 are going to be.

I think my number one might not place (assuming the three songs left are three from Giant Steps that I took it for granted would place).

I don't mind Free Huey, to be honest. I'm listening to it now and it sounds surprisingly good actually, I think it could have been a hit under different circumstances. But while Kingsize needs something a little more uptempo between Old Newsstand and Monuments, Free Huey is just a little too different. It could have worked better as a standout EP or something.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0zWbfrQF9b4/VTqdMuyIfbI/AAAAAAAAAgw/4PMNW5c3rG4/s400-no/Giant%2BSteps%2Bm.jpg

3. Butterfly McQueen
From: Giant Steps
Released: Aug 31, 1993
398 Points, 13 Votes

YouTube

What?

of course! my #2